Verstappen's anger 'understandable': 'You can't be a nice guy'

Filipe Albuquerque can understand why Max Verstappen reacted so furiously on the board radio after his failed pit stop. The former Red Bull junior driver argues that Verstappen can also simply be pushed aside by Red Bull Racing if all he does is make mistakes. According to Albuquerque, it is therefore only natural for the reigning world champion to expect his team to make no mistakes either.

Albuquerque was supported by Red Bull in his younger years. The now 37-year-old driver was even voted Red Bull's Junior of the Year in 2006 and competed in GP2, the precursor to Formula 2, in 2007. In the end, he did not make it to the premier class of motorsport and has been active in endurance racing for the past decade. He has already won the LMP2 class of the 24 Hours of Le Mans once, and he also won the 24 Hours of Daytona twice.

On Twitter, the Portuguese wrote: "You could say Max complains too much to a team that gave him so much but, the moment he starts to do mistakes he is easily replaced. It’s not complaining, it’s the F1 pressure. It goes both ways. You can’t be a nice guy.”

Verstappen lost about 10 seconds at his pit stop due to a faulty wheelgun. The Red Bull driver then responded quite sarcastically on board radio: "Beautiful, ******* beautiful." Race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase responded calmly, saying that the race still had quite a few laps to go. " Yeah, you don't have to tell me that," Verstappen responded irritably.

Verstappen makes up for it

After the United States Grand Prix, however, all was forgotten and forgiven. Verstappen completed his comeback, taking victory and with it the constructors' title. On his exit lap, he said over the board radio: “I gave it everything out there even though we had that top. I was a bit upset but I just keep pushing and congrats guys what an amazing season for winning also the constructors’. You guys really deserve it."

Albuquerque on Verstappen